How Would I Know alt end to ep 7
by WickedBluerose
Summary: I just couldn’t stand that Mick didn’t explain to Beth why she would know about Coraline’s death. So I re wrote the scene from the moment Beth asked ‘how would she know’ – Mick didn’t answer her instead he went into the matter of his affair with Coraline.


I just couldn't stand that Mick didn't explain to Beth why she would know about Coraline's death. So I re wrote the scene from the moment Beth asked 'how would she know' – Mick didn't answer her instead he went into the matter of his affair with Coraline. Beth deserves to know so here it is… let me know what you think and hopefully we will still get some version of this in the show at some point.

How Would I Know

"You don't know, do you?" He watched her intently.

"How would I know?" Beth snapped back, eyes wide with the information being presented.

Mick took one last glance her way then turned his back to her as he walked to the window. _Do I tell you or let you hide from the memory? Would you hate me if you knew that I was the reason she took you? That Coraline kidnapped you because she wanted me back? _No matter the cost to himself, Beth deserved to know the truth she had been hiding from herself. "How much do you remember from when you were taken?"

"When I was taken? What do you mean?" Beth was confused at what seemed a ninety degree turn in the conversation topic, and she was already pushing down panic at the confession of a few moments ago that Mick himself had murdered his wife. True she was vampire that turned him against his will, but what drove Mick to murder?

Inwardly he sighed. _Not going to make this easy are you? _He committed himself to see this through and turned to face her again still standing by the window to allow space as a buffer to the shock to come. "When you were taken, Beth. When you were four. How much do you remember?" His tone was gentle but firm.

Flashes of half formed sounds and images crept up from her nightmares to consume her thoughts. Fear. The Scary Lady. Fire. Safety at last. "Not much... a lady, missing my mom, candles, someone saved me... some guy I don't think I ever got his name. There was fight and I hid too afraid to watch during most of it. Wait a minute... how do you know I was ... " her eyes grew wide... "Oh my God... it was you, wasn't it? That night shortly after we met that you saved me from the professor and I had a nightmare and said you saved me. It wasn't just a bump on the head and my mind playing games. It was really you all those years ago." Mick waited for the rest to come, eyes intent on her face to see when the rest of the puzzle would fall into place, but she had stopped talking. Was she waiting for him to deny or confirm it?

"Yes... it was me. I took you home twenty two years ago. Do you remember anything about the 'lady' ?" His eyes pleaded with her to remember on her own so he wouldn't have to be the one to say it.

Her brow furraled in thought... "Not much... " Finally at the stress breaking point her frustration won out and she lashed back without meaning to, "What does what happened when I was taken have to do with what is going on now with Morgan? "

"Coraline was the one who took you from your bed 22 yrs ago. She kidnapped you to try to get me to come back to her. She thought if she could make a normal family that I would come back and everything would work out. Do you remember the fire? " Mick cautiously came closer till he was standing beside her sitting form on the couch.

"That night you rescued me is the night you murdered her? Then left her to burn in the fire." Understanding, disbelief, pain... they all played across Beth's face as the dots connected to make the big picture. "You killed her to save me." Mick reached out instinctively to comfort her and was shocked when she flinted unwittingly at his touch. It was only the merest moment and she didn't do it intentionally he knew that... but it still hurt. He withdrew to go stand back by the window. She knew now and who could blame her for leaving if she chose to.

The reporter in her still trying to make this night conform to some level of graspable sanity, Beth pushed on despite the emotional turmoil rolling inside her. "You said you were convinced Morgan was Coraline till last night... what happened last night to convince you she wasn't? "

"Coraline had a tatoo - a fleur de lis - on the back of her shoulder. Morgan doesn't. I tried to get her to reveal herself last night...but I was wrong. Coraline drove me insane the whole time I knew her and when all the parallals had passed I wasn't sure what was only in my head and what was real anymore." he explained.

"Mick... tatoos can be removed, but wasn't Coraline a vampire? Morgan isn't... is she? " Beth asked.

_Tatooes can be removed... I didn't think of that ... what if..._ "No ... Morgan is human." He confirmed. _Did she find a way out of that inferno? Did she find a cure? I can't tell Beth till I'm sure it's possible. Till I know I can reverse being a monster. _

"Then it can't be Coraline. Were you disappointed? " her voice wavered the slightest bit at the last question and Micks silence was too much to take on top of the rest of the night's revelations. Beth walked out and he let her. They both had a lot to think about tonight before the dawn brought a new day.


End file.
